Latin America
has in Caracas, Venezuela one of the largest active social groups
of expats (expatriates) in South America. Called the Rincon
Gang or Rinconeers, they publish a regular newsletter, the Rincon
Reminder, which updates their Caracas community web site, www.Expat-Village.com
The Rincon Reminder updates are also issued to ex-Caracas Rinconeers
now living and working in over 25 countries..
The Expat-Village web-site has all the latest Venezuelan news in English.
We publish news stories of interest to expatriates, including world news, sport,
entertainment and business. We have features on travel in Venezuela, Latin
America and the Caribbean, quick food recipes, and Venezuela security alerts.
Caracas social activities are listed in ‘What’s on in Caracas’, and we’ll keep
you amused with the 'Joke of the Day' page.
Expats in Venezuela
:
Contact Us
Connect with Iain Williams in Caracas - Your Humble Social Dictator.
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If you need to connect to your Humble Social Director, Iain Williams, just send an e-mail to;
IainWilliams@gmail.com
or
Iainw@IainWilliams.com
My contact telephone numbers are:
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| Iain Williams in Caracas "I'm getting too old for F1" |
News Section
:
Venezuela News
Miss Venezuela crowned Miss Universe
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 |
| Dayana Mendoza of Venezuela celebrates after winning the Miss Universe 2008 beauty pageant. |
Miss Venezuela took the crown and Miss South Africa Tansey coetzee came
out in the top fifteen at the Miss Universe pageant held in Vietnam on
Monday.
Venezuela’s Dayana Mendoza, 22, burst into tears when the presenter, US
talk show host Jerry Springer, announced she had beaten finalists from
Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Russia.
The 1, 78m beauty, the favourite of pageant bloggers and online
bookmakers, clinched the diamond-studded gold crown after answering a
question on the difference between men and women.
"Men think that the fastest way to go to a point is to go straight,"
explained the trilingual aspiring interior designer. "Women know that
the faster way to go to a point is to go to the curves."
Mendoza, who was once kidnapped in her home country, later issued a call for....................
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Venezuela News
Chavez comes off a big loser in the Colombian hostage liberation
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A Miami Herald story by Andres Oppenheimer www.miami.com
The biggest loser of last week's
Hollywood-styled Colombian army rescue of 15 hostages in the hands of
the FARC guerrillas, in addition to the rebels themselves, was
Venezuela's narcissist-Leninist President Hugo Chavez.
Judging from Chavez' own public statements and the contents of
thousands of e-mails found in FARC laptop computers seized March 1 when
Colombia's military raided a guerrilla camp inside Ecuador, Chavez was
hoping to use the hostage crisis to become the ultimate power broker in
the Colombian armed conflict and become South America's most powerful
political leader.
Chavez, as well as Ecuador's president, Rafael Correa, had been
openly asking for international diplomatic recognition of Revolutionary
Armed Forces of Colombia rebels as a ''belligerent force.''
This would have given the Colombian guerrillas much-needed
political oxygen after a series of crushing defeats by the Colombian
army.
In a speech to the Venezuelan Congress earlier this year, Chavez said
that the FARC guerrillas ''are not terrorist organizations,'' but
''real armies that occupy space in Colombia's territory and deserve
recognition. They are insurgent forces that have a political project, a
Bolivarian project that is respected here.''
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe vehemently rejected the Chavez-Correa
proposal to give diplomatic recognition to the FARC. The United States
and the
27-member European Union have long categorized the FARC as a terrorist
group, based on its widespread violence against civilians.
What exactly was Chavez trying to achieve? According to thousands of
e-mails found in the laptop computers of slain FARC commander Raul
Reyes, which Interpol forensic computer experts certified were not
tampered with by the Colombian government, Chavez and the FARC were..................
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in Caracas and Porlamar,Margarita Island, Venezuela
Friendship among Women:
A woman didn't come home one night. The next morning she told her husband that she had slept over at a friend's house.
The man called his wife's 10 best friends. None of them knew anything about it.
Friendship among Men:
A man didn't come home one night. The next morning he told his wife that he had slept over at a friend's house.
The woman called her husband's 10 best friends.
Eight confirmed that he had slept over,.....
....and two said he was still there.
News Section
:
Venezuela News
Venezuela: Army unrest grows over Chávez reforms
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A Guardian story by Rory Carroll in Caracas http://www.guardian.co.uk
Venezuelan military officers have
expressed growing alarm at attempts by President Hugo Chávez to turn
the armed forces into a political instrument of his socialist
revolution.
One general has been detained and hundreds of other officers reportedly
sidelined for protesting against the ideological drive. Chávez has
ordered the armed forces to adopt the Cuba-style salute "Fatherland,
socialism or death" to put the institution at the heart of his effort
to transform Venezuela.
Pastors from the recently formed pro-Chávez Reformed Catholic church
have been installed as army chaplains to weaken the influence of the
traditional Catholic church, which is hostile to the president. "That's
causing a lot of resentment, a lot of upset," said...........................
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Venezuela News
Chávez in danger in Venezuela
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An article by Stephanie Blankenburg at http://www.newstatesman.com
Chávez
has little more than four months - perhaps even less - to come up with
a solution to a very difficult equation or his Bolivarian project faces
derailment
On 5 July, Venezuelans celebrated the 197th anniversary of their Declaration of Independence from Spain.
On
that day in 1811, a group of rebel criollos (those born in the Spanish
colonies but of Iberian descent), gathered in the Santa Rosa Lima
Chapel in Caracas to found a new Republic, the American Confederation
of Venezuela.
It would take another decade of bloody warfare war
before the republican rebels, famously led by Francisco Miranda and
Simón Bolívar, could declare victory over their Royalist foes.
Almost
two centuries on, another kind of rebel is in charge in Venezuela, a
mestizo (a person of mixed race) this time round, inspired as much by
his criollo ancestors’ determination to rid themselves of foreign
domination, through another, more recent ideal, also partly of European
“descent”: Socialism.
However, victory for Chávez’ Bolivarian
Project is by no means guaranteed. If anything, it is in more danger of
being derailed, both from......
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Caribbean & Latin News
Uribe Poised to Crush Colombian Rebels as Hostages Are Freed
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A Bloomberg story by Helen Murphy and Andrea Jaramillo at www.bloomberg.com
The bloodless rescue of
former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other
hostages puts President Alvaro Uribe within sight of his most cherished
goal: crushing the guerrillas who have spent 44 years trying to
overthrow the government.
The hostage rescue deprived the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
of its last major bargaining chips and proved the wisdom of Uribe's
hard-line policies, analysts said. The FARC, as the group is known, was
already reeling from the deaths this year of three top leaders,
desertion of dozens of its most seasoned commanders and betrayal by one
of its security chiefs.
``The FARC are for all intents and purposes finished,'' said Michael
Shifter, vice president of the Inter-American Dialogue, a policy
research group in Washington. ``There will still be violence in
Colombia, and certain FARC fronts will remain heavily involved in the
cocaine trade, but now nobody is going to care.''
For Uribe, 55, the rescue provides a boost of international prestige at
a time few Latin American leaders have backed him in his confrontation
with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and a much sought-after...........
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Features
:
Joke of the day
John West Salmon Advert
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This is a video of one of the hit adverts' of recent years, it's very, very funny,...check it out here
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:
Venezuela News
Colombia rejects Venezuela border incursion charge
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A Reuters story by Luis Rojas and Greg Brosnan
at www.reuters.com
BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombian
authorities on Sunday rejected charges from Venezuela that their troops
had crossed the frontier in the latest incident to test fraying
relations between the Andean neighbours.
Venezuela over the weekend accused 60 Colombian soldiers of entering
its territory in what Caracas said was a provocation that aimed to
destabilize the region.
The tension exacerbates sharp divisions in the Andes, where Colombian
President Alvaro Uribe is a close Washington ally and Venezuela's Hugo
Chavez a purveyor of anti-U.S. sentiment.
"There has been no incursion," Colombian Defense Minister Juan Manuel
Santos told local radio, saying a river in the area would have
prevented troops crossing. "It would have been practically impossible
for it to happen as they say."
Tension has simmered since Colombia raided inside Ecuador and killed a
rebel leader in March. After Ecuador broke off relations, Chavez
ordered tanks to the porous border that cuts through jungle and
mountains to support his leftist ally.
Venezuela said the incursion occurred on Friday, a day after Chavez said he would........................
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Venezuela News
Venezuela's Chavez slams Germany's Merkel comments
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A Reuters story at
www.reuters.com
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez on Sunday almost told German Chancellor Angela
Merkel to go to hell, but stopped short of insulting the woman leader
on Mother's Day.
Instead he called her a political descendant of Adolf Hitler and German fascism.
"Ms. Chancellor, you can go to ...," he said, pausing for effect and
eliciting giggles from the audience, a group of military officers,
cabinet ministers and government officials. "Because she's a woman I
won't say anything else."
The leftist leader, who famously called U.S. President George W. Bush
"the devil" at a United Nations assembly, slammed Merkel for calling on
Latin American leaders to distance themselves from Chavez.
"She is from the German right, the same that supported Hitler, that
supported fascism, that's the Chancellor of Germany today," he said.
Chavez said he could confront her about the statements if he attends.........
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Venezuela's Chavez withdraws lawsuit against ex-wife over custody of daughter
CARACAS, Venezuela: Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez is withdrawing a lawsuit against his ex-wife
involving their 10-year-old daughter, saying he does not want to become
a spectacle in a legal battle.
Chavez says ex-wife Marisabel Rodriguez has prevented him from seeing
their daughter, Rosines. Venezuela's president says he will attempt to
resolve the dispute without taking Rodriguez to court.
Rodriguez denies that she has not permitted the president to visit their daughter.
Chavez accused Rodriguez on Sunday of trying to put Rosines in the middle of what he called "a media show."
Rodriguez said last week that she was consulting with her lawyer after
a court notified her of the suit. She declined to give details.
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Venezuela News
Colombia shows new rebel documents that link Venezuela -- Update
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An AP story by FRANK BAJAK
BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — A newly
disclosed set of documents that Colombia's government says were
recovered from a slain rebel's computers indicate senior Venezuelan
officials tried to help arm Colombia's main guerrilla army.
The electronic documents — more than a dozen — were shown to The Associated Press on Friday.
They detail alleged meetings between senior Venezuelan officials —
including that country's chief of military intelligence and interior
minister — and top leaders of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC. Some discuss the procurement of weapons, others
rebel training for Venezuelan home defense forces.
Venezuelan officials maintain that Bogota is manipulating the truth.
"The whole thing is like a movie. Fiction is fiction, reality is
reality," Bernardo Alvarez, Venezuela's ambassador to Washington, said
Friday.
The documents shown to the AP are among 11,000 that Colombian officials
say they found in laptops, external drives and memory sticks recovered
in a March 1 cross-border raid in Ecuador that killed rebel leader Raul
Reyes and 24 other people.
Some 2,000 of the documents had been erased but were recovered through
computer forensics, a senior Colombian official told the AP.
Colombia released several dozen documents immediately after the raid,
and since then has periodically shown more to reporters. A Washington
intelligence official vouched for the documents' authenticity, saying
they were delivered to U.S. intelligence agencies in March.
The U.S. and Colombian officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the matter's sensitivity.
The documents seen by the AP are all allegedly internal communications
between FARC commanders, chiefly messages from Ivan Marquez, the
rebels' main representative in Venezuela. Several discuss what
Colombian officials interpret as an open-ended Venezuelan loan of.....
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Venezuela News
Chavez says Colombia seeks war with Venezuela
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 |
| Hugo Chavez |
CARACAS (AFP) — President Hugo Chavez
said Sunday on his radio talk show that neighboring Colombia is trying
to provoke Venezuela into a war so as to draw in and "justify" an armed
intervention by the United States.
"The government of Colombia is capable of provoking a war with
Venezuela to justify a US intervention in Venezuela," Chavez said on
his weekly program "Alo Presidente."
He warned Colombian President Alvaro Uribe: "think closely about how
far you can go, and I publicly urge you a moment of reflection."
Chavez and Uribe locked horns in March after.........
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Files show ties of Venezuela-Colombia rebels: U.S.
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A Reuters story by Enrique Andres Pretel at
www.reuters.com
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez's ties to Colombian rebels are deeper than
previously thought, U.S. officials said on Friday, following an
analysis of files on a dead guerrilla leader's laptops.
The files appear to be authentic and underscore U.S. concerns about
Chavez's quest for more influence in the region, an intelligence
official said. Their discovery in March raised speculation the United
States would put Venezuela on its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
"It (the analysis) reinforces the U.S. government's strong position
that Chavez is attempting in various ways to project his influence
throughout the region and that influence in some ways could be
construed as destabilizing," the intelligence official said.
Another U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the
issue involves classified information, described the files as a huge
public relations win for Colombia, which is battling the guerrillas of
the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.
"The involvement does seem to extend fairly high up in the Venezuelan
government. This isn't a bunch of local yokels on the border doing
their own thing," the official said.
Chavez contends the Colombian government faked the files.
Although Chavez's sympathies for the FARC are well known, Colombia has
said the files seized in a March attack show Chavez offered...................
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:
Business, Economic and Financial News
Oil rises above $126 a barrel
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A story from The Associated Press
NEW YORK: Oil rose above $126 a barrel
Friday for the first time, as investors questioned whether a possible
confrontation between the United States and Venezuela could cause a
reduction in exports from the OPEC member.
The Wall Street Journal published a report Friday that suggested closer
ties between President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela and rebels attempting
to overthrow Colombia's government. Chávez has been linked to Colombian
rebels previously, but the paper reported it had reviewed computer
files indicating concrete offers by Venezuela's leader to arm
guerillas. That appears to heighten the chances that the United States
could impose sanctions on one of its biggest oil suppliers.
"If we put on sanctions, I'm sure Chávez would threaten to cut off our
oil supply," said Phil Flynn, an analyst at Alaron Trading. "Obviously
that would have a major impact on oil prices."
Light, sweet crude for June delivery settle up $2.27 at $125.96 a
barrel before rising to a record $126.25 in late post-settlement trade.
Even if Chávez cut oil shipments to the United States, Venezuelan oil would still make its way to.............
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Chavez: Venezuela won't tolerate secession in Bolivia
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President Hugo Chavez says Venezuela will not tolerate a movement for secession in Bolivia's eastern lowland states.
Chavez says his government has not meddled in the domestic affairs of
other Latin American nations, but would if Bolivian states now seeking
greater autonomy from Bolivia's central government push for total
independence.
He did not say Thursday what specifically Venezuela would do.
Bolivia's largest and richest state overwhelmingly backed a May 4
referendum seeking greater autonomy from the leftist government of
President Evo Morales. Leaders insist they have no interest in full
independence.
Chavez, a close Morales ally, accuses the U.S. of fomenting the state's autonomy movement, a charge U.S. officials deny.
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:
Business, Economic and Financial News
Oil passes $120
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An
Associated Press story by
JOHN WILEN
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil futures surged to
a new record over $120 a barrel Monday, raising concerns about higher
prices for gasoline and goods and services throughout the economy.
Retail gas prices fell more than a cent over the weekend, but oil's
advance increased the likelihood that pump prices would resume their
climb.
Supply threats that emerged overseas and a weaker dollar sent light,
sweet crude for June delivery to a new trading record of $120.36 a
barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange before futures retreated
slightly to settle up $3.65 at a record $119.97.
Oil's sharp rise this year has driven gas prices to unprecedented
levels, prompting consumers to reconsider summer vacation plans and
limit daily excursions; they're also spending less at malls and
shopping centers because they're paying more not just for fuel, but for
all kinds of goods and services. Americans are also being pinched by
tight credit conditions, a sluggish jobs market and a downturn in the
housing market.
"American consumers are being hit hard financially from a bunch of different directions," said Troy Green, a spokesman for AAA.
The average national price of a gallon of regular gas slipped to $3.611
a gallon on Monday, down 1.1 cents from Friday, according to AAA and
the Oil Price Information Service. Prices reached a record $3.623 a
gallon on Thursday.
But if oil prices continue climbing, gas prices could rise as high as
$3.75 a gallon on a national basis, Green said, though, "in some
places, it's already above $4 a gallon."
In most years, gas prices peak in May or early June, then mostly
decline for the rest of the year. But oil at $120 — and rising — may
force the experts to rewrite their rulebook.
The mix of factors that drove oil to its latest record were a microcosm
of the forces that have nearly doubled oil prices from their levels of
about $62 a barrel one year ago. The dollar weakened against the euro
on Monday, attracting investors to............
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Caribbean & Latin News
Chavez best hope for Colombia's Betancourt
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A Reuters story by Todd Benson at www.reuters.com
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is
the best hope for successfully negotiating the release of
French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages held
by leftist Colombian guerrillas, her husband said on Friday.
France is spearheading a campaign to restart talks with the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the Marxist rebel
group holding hundreds of captives, including Betancourt, in secret
camps deep in the jungle.
Chavez, a self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary who has expressed
sympathies for the FARC, helped negotiate the release of six hostages
this year. But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe rejects a formal role
in release talks for Chavez, who irked his Colombian counterpart by
urging more recognition for the rebels.
"The Colombian government, I think out of pride, doesn't want Chavez to
participate," Juan Carlos Lecompte, Betancourt's husband, told Reuters
on the sidelines of an environmental conference in Sao Paulo.
"But for us, the relatives of the captives, he is the main hope that we
have. We've begged him to keep working for their release and that is
what he is doing."
Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate who also holds
French citizenship, was abducted by FARC rebels six years ago and has
become the public face of Colombia's hostage crisis.
Chavez and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who has also clashed with Uribe, have said they were...........
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Venezuela News
Venezuela's Chavez raises minimum wage by a third
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A Reuters story at www.reuters.com
CARACAS, April 30 (Reuters)
- Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez pumped up the minimum wage by 30
percent on Wednesday and said putting cash in workers' pockets came
before his battle with Latin America's highest inflation rate.
Hundreds of union members cheered as Chavez signed the decrees to raise wages, which will come into effect on May 1.
The
socialist president vowed to fight prices, which rose 22.5 percent last
year, but said the government was first committed to maintaining
workers' buying power.
He also raised public sector workers'
wages by 30 percent. The minimum wage will now be.........
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Colombia alleges Venezuela sought guerrilla training from FARC
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A Miami Herald
story by ALEJANDRA LABANCA at www.miami,com
The government of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez asked Colombia's main leftist rebel group to ''share its
experience in guerrilla warfare,'' citing a possible U.S. invasion,
according to documents obtained by The Miami Herald.
A senior Colombian official said the documents were retrieved from a
computer belonging to Raúl Reyes, the FARC leader who was killed March
1 in a Colombian military strike on a rebel hideout in neighboring
Ecuador.
In one of the e-mails reviewed by The Herald, someone who signs as
''Iván'' tells the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia's main
leadership, known as the Secretariat, that the request for military
cooperation came from Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramón Rodríguez
Chacín. The e-mails were among a stack of previously undisclosed
documents allegedly retrieved from Reyes' laptops.
The senior Colombian official -- who requested anonymity as a condition
for discussing the documents -- identified ''Iván'' as Iván Márquez, a
member of the FARC's Secretariat.
The authenticity of the documents could not be independently confirmed.
Colombian authorities told The Herald the documents survived the
bombing at the rebel camp because the computers were protected by metal
casings. The Colombian government has asked Interpol to verify the
authenticity of the files, and results are expected soon.
A request for an interview with Rodríguez Chacín was declined on Wednesday.
According to one e-mail exchange reviewed by The Miami Herald, Rodríguez Chacín sought extensive FARC training.
''Rodríguez Chacín inquired about the possibility that we share our
experience in guerrilla warfare, something that they call assymetric
war. They want operational tactics, explosives, bolivarian education,
jungle camps, ambushes, logistic, mobility . . . , all of it thinking
about an adequate response to a U.S. invasion,'' writes ''Iván'' in the
e-mail, dated Nov. 14, 2007.
The Colombian official said the timing of the e-mail matches a meeting
between Rodríguez Chacín and FARC rebel Iván Márquez in Caracas. The
official pointed to a.......
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Major blackout hits most regions in Venezuela
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 |
| Public transportation service, including the subway, collapsed in Caracas |
Minister of the Interior and Justice
Ramón Rodríguez Chacín Tuesday informed that a major blackout hitting
most of Venezuela at 3:59 pm (local time) was the result of a power
outage in Guri dam, in southern Bolívar state, which caused a 800-KW
high tension line to overheat.
"Because of such overheating, another high-tension line that was
operating had to be brought out of service, in order to make the
necessary repairs. When the second high-tension line was brought out of
service, a blackout occurred in 13 states nationwide. Power supply has
been resumed progressively."
The states most seriously hit were central Carabobo state, northwestern
Zulia state, northern Miranda state, north central Capital District,
north central coastal Vargas state, eastern Nueva Esparta state,
eastern Sucre state, central Aragua state, western central Yaracuy
state, northwestern Lara state, southwestern Mérida state, southern
central Portuguesa state and y southwestern Apure state.
According to Rodríguez Chacín, no serious emergencies emerged amidst the blackout in hospitals and the Caracas subway other than.....
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Missteps as Venezuela's Chavez backs farming
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A Reuters story at www.reuters.com
MANTECAL, Venezuela, April 29 (Reuters) - Deep
in Venezuela's sweltering heartland, a gleaming dairy plant sits idle,
a testament to missteps that slow President Hugo Chavez's drive to make
his oil nation self-sufficient in food.
Dozens of workers in yellow rubber boots sluice water to keep metal
pipes clean, ready to churn out pasteurized milk and cheese, but the
site has barely operated since a team of Iranian technicians built it
10 months ago.
What may seem an obvious obstacle has yet to be overcome -- too few
dairy cows are raised in the harsh plains where the plant is located to
provide enough milk to keeping it running.
"It's like they put their pants on before their underwear," said
Humberto Taquiva, a cobbler who is also an agricultural adviser in the
tiny plains town of Mantecal, trying to persuade farmers to produce
milk for the plant.
With world food prices at all-time highs and hurt by sporadic shortages of basic products last year, Chavez is determined to.......
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Venezuela: Four killed in plane crash
CARACAS, Venezuela, April 28 (UPI) -- Four people were killed and four others were injured Monday when a plane crashed near Caracas, Venezuela, aviation officials said.
The plane crashed into a three-story building, killing two people inside. The pilot and a passenger were killed when the plane collided with the structure, Globovision reported Monday.
The plane was reportedly en route from Caracas north to the island of Curacao.
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Venezuela Increases Dollar Bond Sale to $4 Billion
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A Bloomberg story by Matthew Walter and Daniel Cancel at www.bloomberg.com
April 28 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuela
increased the size of a dollar-denominated bond sale to $4 billion to
meet higher-than- expected demand for foreign currency from local
investors.
The government said it sold $2 billion each of dollar bonds due in 2023
and 2028 to local investors, who could buy the securities with local
currency. The Finance Ministry, which originally said it would sell $3
billion in dollar bonds, received orders worth $9.29 billion, it said
in a statement.
``This shows the pent-up demand for dollars in Venezuela,'' said Boris Segura, an economist at Morgan Stanley in New York.
Venezuela, the fourth-biggest supplier of crude oil to the U.S., is
selling dollar bonds to provide an outlet for companies to get around
exchange controls and obtain hard currency. The sales also help absorb
liquidity and slow the country's inflation rate, which is the fastest
in Latin America.
The bolivar was little changed at 3.24 per dollar today in black market
trading, said Nelson Corrie, a trader at Interacciones Mercado de
Capitales. Investors turn to the parallel market when they can't get
permission from the government to buy dollars at the official peg of
2.15 per dollar.
Before this month's sale, the government had been selling
dollar-denominated securities in weekly sales to local banks, part of
an effort to reduce the gap between the official rate and the parallel
market rate, which plunged to as low as 6.6 in October.
Shrinking Differential
``This sale was very well executed,'' said Henry Travieso, a trader at
Banfers Sociedad de Corretaje in Caracas. ``The difference between the
official and the parallel rate is going to shrink.''
Traders said investors who bought the bonds will be able to sell them on the secondary market and obtain dollars at an.............
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Chavez confirms he will work for release of US hostages
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An
Associated Press story by
CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
 |
| New Mexico Governor, Bill Richardson, left, shakes hands with Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez |
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President
Hugo Chavez said Sunday he will try to facilitate the release of three
Americans held captive by Colombia's largest rebel group — even though
he has lost contact with the guerrillas.
Chavez confirmed his willingness to help a day after New Mexico Gov.
Bill Richardson said the socialist leader had agreed to mediate a
possible exchange of the U.S. defense contractors for imprisoned
guerrillas.
"I told him that we're at their service, to try to help even though the
issue is very complicated," said Chavez, speaking during his weekly
television and radio program.
Chavez helped pave the way for the release of six captives earlier this
year. But on Sunday, he reiterated previous claims that his government
has lost contact with leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, or FARC.
Prior to his meeting with Richardson at the presidential palace on Saturday, Chavez remarked that he did not know "if I'm.......
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Latin American allies attack food crisis
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An
Associated Press story by
CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — President
Hugo Chavez joined with his leftist allies on Wednesday to create a
$100 million program to fight the rising cost of food for Latin
America's poor.
Chavez and leaders from Cuba, Bolivia and Nicaragua also promised joint
programs for agricultural development in addition to the new Food
Security Fund, though they provided no details on how the programs and
fund would work.
"This food crisis is the biggest demonstration of the historic failure
of the capitalist model," Chavez told Bolivian President Evo Morales,
Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage
during a summit in Caracas.
Chavez said the countries need to create a distribution network "so we don't fall into the hands of...................
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Venezuela student leader wins award for challenging Chavez
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An Associated Press story
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — A U.S.-based
think tank has awarded a $500,000 prize to the leader of a student
protest movement that has posed a potent challenge to Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez.
University student Yon Goicoechea became a household name in Venezuela
last year after he led protests that were widely seen as a key factor
in the defeat of sweeping constitutional changes proposed by Chavez.
The Washington-based Cato Institute said it would announce the
23-year-old as winner of the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing
Liberty on Thursday.
"I see it as a collective prize. The prize is being given to me, but
it's being given to me as a representative of something much bigger,"
Goicoechea told The Associated Press in an interview. "It's an
acknowledgment of the work that has been done in promoting freedom."
Goicoechea took a central role last year in rallying students to oppose
what he sees as threats to personal liberties and democracy in
Venezuela. The constitutional changes rejected by voters in December
would have let Chavez run for re-election indefinitely and would have............
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Miami Man Pleads Guilty In Venezuela Spy Case
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A Washington Post story at http://www.washingtonpost.com
A Miami man with links to a Venezuelan
spy agency pleaded guilty on Wednesday to being an illegal agent in an
alleged cover-up of Venezuela's $800,000 campaign donation to an
Argentine presidential candidate.
Rodolfo Edgardo Wanseele Paciello, 40, admitted in federal court to
providing counter-surveillance for a Venezuelan intelligence (DISIP)
official who travelled to South Florida last October to organize the
alleged cover-up.
Wanseele was among five defendants -- including two wealthy.....
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Venezuela Prices Bonds at 115 Percent of Face Value
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A Bloomberg story by Matthew Walter and Theresa
Bradley at www.bloomberg.com
Venezuela set the price for a $3
billion sale of dollar bonds at a lower-than-expected 115 percent of
the securities' face value, a level that traders said may drum up
demand.
The Finance Ministry said yesterday it would sell $1.5 billion in 9
percent bonds due in 2023 and $1.5 billion in 9.25 percent bonds due in
2028. The bonds, which local investors can buy with bolivars, are
designed to help meet demand for dollars and strengthen the bolivar in
the black market.
At a price of 115 percent, investors will be able to buy dollars at an
exchange rate of 2.8 bolivars per dollar, a stronger rate than the
black market price of 3.2 per dollar. The government sets the official
exchange rate at 2.15. Venezuelans turn to the unregulated market when
they can't get permission from the government to buy dollars at the
official rate.
``It's a very low price,'' said Henry Travieso, a trader at Banfers
Sociedad de Corretaje in Caracas. ``This is going to knock down the........
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Venezuela tried to buy time on spy satellite, lawsuit shows
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A Miami Herald story by BY PABLO BACHELETMiami Herald Anita Snow at www.miami.com
Chávez offered between $100 million
and $150 million during negotiations to acquire partial interest in a
company that operates a powerful observation satellite capable of
discerning objects as small as about 27 inches across, according to
documents in a civil complaint filed in a New York federal court.
Chávez sought to purchase 20 percent to 30 percent of the stock offered
by ImageSat International, the company that owns the Eros A and Eros B
satellites; the latter was launched in 2006 by Israel, reportedly to
spy on Iran's nuclear program.
But the Israelis ''sabotaged'' the deal in November 2006, after a
company director notified its representative in Venezuela, Stephen E.
Wilson, to suspend all activities in the South American nation,
according to the complaint filed by Wilson and others.
According to allegations in the court documents reviewed by El Nuevo
Herald, the decision to pull the plug on a deal with Venezuela was
driven in part by the Israeli defense conglomerate, Israel Aircraft
Industries (IAI), and in part by the military embargo ordered against
Venezuela by the U.S. State Department.
''Rather than the legitimate commercial interests of plaintiffs and
similarly situated minority shareholders, defendants were motivated by
the deteriorating international relationship between the United States
and Venezuela and Israel's desire to improve and maintain its
historically good relations with the United States,'' the complaint
said.
The documents give no indication of why Chávez was interested in the
satellite imagery. The populist president regularly alleges that.................
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Skype to sell unlimited international calls for $9.95/month
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An Associated Press story by PETER SVENSSON
NEW YORK — Skype, the Internet calling
subsidiary of eBay Inc., is introducing its first plan for unlimited
calls to overseas phones on Monday.
The plan will allow unlimited calls to land-line phones in 34 countries
for $9.95 per month, said Don Albert, vice president and general
manager for Skype North America.
The countries encompassed include most of Europe, plus.......
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Venezuela: discovered wreck in the Los Roques archipelago, maybe the airplane of Transaven
Caracas, Venezuela - An object at 400 m depth
The Italian Foreign Minister has confirmed the discovery of a wreck that could be compatible with LET-410UVO belonging to Transaven, lost at sea on January 4th on the route between Caracas and Los Roques, Venezuela.
The researches carried out by INCOSTA Company have individuated an object at 400 m depth, which dimensions are compatible with the Transaven airplane, José Gregorio Morales responsible for the investigation said to the missing persons' families.
After four days of searches, the Venezuela Navy "Punta Brava" ship discovered - thanks to special devices - a wreck in the impact point where LET-410 could be crashed.
In that Ocean's area, in the course of the last few years, over 30 airplanes have been lost, among them the Transaven airplane
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Plane searched in Venezuela after bomb warning
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A Reuters story at
www.reuters.com
CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuelan
authorities were searching a trans-Atlantic airliner on Sunday after
receiving a call warning that a bomb was aboard the plane that had been
due to fly to Madrid from Caracas, an airline official said.
Passengers had deplaned and their luggage was.................
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Ebay considers sale of Skype subsidiary
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A Financial Times story by Richard Waters in San Francisco at http://www.ft.com
Ebay will consider selling off its
Skype internet phone subsidiary at the end of this year if it fails to
find ways to use the fast-growing service to support its core
e-commerce business, according to the company's chief executive.
The comments from John Donahoe, who took over at the end of last month,
are the most direct indication yet that Ebay is thinking of scrapping
the ill-starred acquisition. It paid $3.1bn, but wrote down the value
of the business by $1.4bn last year after concluding it would not match
earlier hopes.
Ebay originally believed that Skype would oil the wheels of its online
markets by making communications easier between buyers and sellers,
while also supporting new business models such as "click to call".
Nearly three years after the acquisition, however, Ebay has yet to
prove Skype can help its other businesses.
"What we're testing this year are the synergies," Mr Donahoe told the
Financial Times this week after Ebay reported its latest earnings. "If
the synergies are.....................
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Empresas Polar Urges Venezuela to Ease Currency Exchange Rules
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A Bloomberg story by Jens Erik Gould and Carlos M. Rodriguez at www.bloomberg.com
Lorenzo Mendoza, chief executive
officer of Empresas Polar SA, called for Venezuela to make currency
exchange controls more flexible to improve food supply and make it
easier to import raw materials.
Polar, the country's biggest food processor, has been forced to stop
making some products because it sometimes can't get government permits
to obtain dollars, Mendoza said today. The company has had trouble
importing tomato paste and corn oil because it can't get enough dollars
to buy them, he said.
``Supply chains in many areas are breaking because the bureaucracy involved in accessing those..........
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